Effect of honey and sugars on the metabolism and disposition of naringin in rabbits

To investigate the effect of honey and sugars on the metabolism and disposi tion of naringin, rabbits were administered naringin alone and naringin wit h honey or its component sugars - fructose, glucose and sucrose in crossove r designs. An HPLC method was developed to determine naringenin in serum af ter enzymatic hydrolysis. Our results indicate that honey, fructose and suc rose significantly reduced AUC(0-t) of naringenin by 41 %, 61 % and 45 %, r espectively. In vitro studies using a rabbit feces suspension to incubate n aringin without or with honey or the respective sugars were employed to inv estigate the mechanism of this interaction. The results indicated that hone y and its component sugars did not affect the rate and extent of naringin h ydrolysis, whereas the degradation of naringenin was significantly enhanced in the presence of honey and fructose. It could be concluded that concomit ant intake of honey, fructose and sucrose resulted in the reduction of nari ngin absorption which could be attributable in part to the enhanced preabso rption degradation of absorbable naringenin in the large intestine.